Percent of Non-Federal Area in Rangeland, 1982

Description

This map shows the spatial distribution of the nation's non-Federal rangeland in 1982 as a percentage of the total non-Federal land area for each 8-digit hydrologic unit. Nationwide 416,739,400 acres of non-Federal area are rangeland. Areas with 95% or more federal area are shaded gray.

Cautions for this Product:
Use this map only to identify broad spatial trends. Data are not collected on Federal land. Data are not available for Alaska or the Pacific Basin. Data for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is shown by 6-digit hydrologic unit.

Sources

Source:National Resources Inventory, 1997Distributor: USDA-NRCS-RIADReliability:
NRI sample data are generally reliable at the 95% confidence interval for state and certain broad substate area analyses. Generally, analyses that aggregate data points by smaller geographic areas and/or more specific criteria result in fewer data points for each aggregation and therefore less reliable estimates. NRI maps reflect national patterns rather than site- specific information.

Layers

Definitions

Land cover/use:
A term that includes categories of land cover and categories of land use. Land cover is the vegetation or other kind of material that covers the land surface. Land use is the purpose of human activity on the land; it is usually but not always related to the land cover. The NRI uses the term (land cover/use) to identify the categories that account for all the surface area in the United States [BS-1982; NRI-97]

Non-Federal land:
Includes all land and water areas where the ownership is by private, municipal, county or parish, state, Indian tribal, individual trust, the Tennessee Valley Authority, or areas under temporary control of a Federal, state, county or municipal agency or government for foreclosure or nonpayment of taxes.

Rangeland:
A Land cover/use category on which the climax or potential plant cover is composed principally of native grasses, grasslike plants, forbs or shrubs suitable for grazing and browsing, and introduced forage species that are managed like rangeland. This would include areas where introduced hardy and persistent grasses, such as crested wheatgrass, are planted and such practices as deferred grazing, burning, chaining, and rotational grazing are used, with little or no chemicals or fertilizer being applied. Grasslands, savannas, many wetlands, some deserts, and tundra are considered to be rangeland. Certain communities of low forbs and shrubs, such as mesquite, chaparral, mountain shrub, and pinyon-juniper, are also included as rangeland. [NRI-97]